The strangest thing I ever did for gun rights is attending a corn meeting. I'm still not certain how the things were related but I've been assured they are. Apparently, the radical corn folks are big time gunnies. (No pics of the corn meeting. Darn it.)

Ian

July 31, 2004, 12:05 AM

In my position as a member of my university's pistol team, I've taught tons of fellow students (both those interested in competitive shooting and those who are just looking for basic orientation) gun safety and how to shoot.

That's the extent of my public, proactive gun-rights support. I have participated in activities and demonstrations in support of capitalism, though. Including, among others, protesting UN health-o-crats (http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00000793.html)

Harry Tuttle

July 31, 2004, 12:09 AM

let see,
i organized a TRT chapter and regularly attended MMM public meetings until they stopped publicizing public meetings, organized numerous counter protests for Brady DC events, handed out anti Brady literature at VPC/Brady Kathleen Kennedy Townsend AWB rally,
designed the pro gun billboard that was posted in MD house speaker Cas Taylor's home district, made flyers that helped get Cas Taylor unelected, stood in the rain with the Freepers outside of Gore's VPs mansion playing a militia snare, made up Burma Shave style road signs for the local RINOs dismay, handed out pro gun pamplets at the MMM national meetings in DC, and helped organize progun groups testimony in Annapolis.

sevenpoint62mm

July 31, 2004, 03:18 AM

If you inform the shepple about the truth of the AWB, how it doesn't impact crime, then your being proactive. A person telling a family member or a co-worker this info seems alot less like a nut then a strange guy handing out flyers. People usually will respect you opinion more as well.

FedDC

July 31, 2004, 07:27 AM

I volunteer at the NRA...

geekWithA.45

July 31, 2004, 12:00 PM

Yup. I've handed out pamphlets, was one of the founders of the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense, wrote 600+ pages on the topic on my blog, worked booths, you name it, I've done it.

Barbara

August 1, 2004, 12:52 PM

I was thinking about this and my bigger question would be who has not, and if you haven't, why not?

Barbara

August 1, 2004, 12:53 PM

That's really strange..I was just yesterday looking at the New Jersey site yesterday and am considering joining, and I hadn't seen your post.

Monkeyleg

August 1, 2004, 07:32 PM

Yes. Back in 2001 I got the idea for a group whose sole purpose would be to push for concealed carry in Wisconsin. Opened a bank account, printed some flyers, and the Wisconsin Concealed Carry Association was started. For a couple of weeks the "Association" was just me. But then people started calling to volunteer, and the group now has several hundred volunteers, along with thousands of people who receive our email alerts.

What's kind of funny about all this is that a group so small can get such attention. Our beloved governor :barf: quotes one of our email alerts on his anti-CCW website. And I'm told that we got a nice mention in the September edition of Guns and Ammo. Plus, reporters call all the time for quotes.

Just goes to show you that even just one or two people can make a difference.

Bobarino

August 2, 2004, 07:41 PM

i have. i petitioned my city council to lift their ordinance banning guns, even legally carried ones in city parks. the city overstepped its bounds with the ordinance by stepping on the state's pre-emption clause ragarding firearms that does not allow cities, counties etc to make laws that are more restrictive than state laws. the county agreed. not like they had a lot choice in the matter, their law is illegal. i'm working on my county councilman right now to remove the same ban that applies to county parks, from the county code. it is also illegal and unenforcible and i want it removed. not huge victories or anything but every little bit helps and i'm starting at the bottom and working my way up. i'm pretty new to politics so i need to learn how it all works. these are great ones to cut my teeth on and i'm accomplishing something at the same time. onward and upward.

Bobby

Ninj500

August 2, 2004, 08:21 PM

I'm the Central Ohio Coordinator for Ohioans for Concealed Carry. So far I've co-organzied three open carry defense walks, appreared on several 1/2 hour statewide TV shows, countless TV and radio interviews, met with legislators, among other things.

Check out our website - OhioCCW.org.

Barbara

August 2, 2004, 09:34 PM

I harrass friends, neighbors, co-workers and strangers on the internet into voting for pro-gun political candidates. :)

And this: www.firearmsalliance.org

atek3

August 3, 2004, 06:20 AM

When i was a university student I tabled for the "Campus Gun Club" and explained gun rights to clueless liberals and conservatives.

atek3

Bartholomew Roberts

August 3, 2004, 03:07 PM

You mean I'm expected to do something besides rant about gun rights on the Internet? ;)

Correia

August 3, 2004, 07:17 PM

Nope. I've never done anything useful for the RKBA. I prefer to sit around and complain on the internet. :) :p

I won't hand out pamphlets as personally I find that offensive when activists for other issues do it to me on public street corners, and the pamphlets end up in the trash.

On the other hand I voluneteer for local gun issues. I know my reps. I attend the state legislative sessions and committee meetings. And I teach lots of new people how to shoot and I help them get their CCWs. I've written letters, e-mails, faxes, and I've made phone calls.

moa

August 3, 2004, 08:04 PM

Over the years I have contributed thousands of dollars on pro- RKBA organizations.

Also, over the years I have contributed thousands of dollars on the campaign of pro-RKBA politicians.

Write an occasion letter to the editor of the Washington Times and Post, and got published once or twice.

Attended demonstrations, meetings and hearings.

Have written many letters and e-mails to my political representatives.

Manned a phone bank one time to alert Izzack Walton League members of pending anti-RKBA legislation.

I live in a liberal pig heaven County in a highly liberal State. Not much point in trying to talk up RKBA issues with many people except known or suspected gunnies.

Treylis

August 4, 2004, 02:42 AM

Besides online stuff, I talk with local legislators on the phone and via e-mail about trying to advance a pro-gun agenda and voting/not voting for certain bills.

MP5

August 4, 2004, 08:03 AM

Among other things:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94840

Little response, though.

Harve Curry

August 4, 2004, 11:20 AM

That street corner thing might be the only thing I have not done.

One of the things I've done and I think it could be the most effective is to be a Republican delegate to a state or national convention. Your delegate vote is important. I interview candidates and vote based on their replies to the right to keep and arm bears.
Anybody can do it.
Can you imagine if their was a majority of 2 Amendment advocates showing up at local Republican Party meetings (Not Lunatic Fringe cases either) and getting involved in the gears that turn the political machine.

Joey2

August 4, 2004, 10:56 PM

For one to be pro-active 2d Amendment one should not follow any of the illegal laws passed against it. Such as ; CCW; purchase requiring filling out papers; etc.

One should follow the 2d Amendment to the letter of " shall not be infringed". Of course you will have to defend your position and possibly share a "room" with Bubba and his friends.

How many are willing to place it all on the line? This is what it is really going to take
to get, not only, the 2d Amendment but the rest of them on the right track.

Everytime we submit our rights in exchange for a priviledge we place another nail in the Constitutional coffin.

Passing out handbills, e-mailing the powers to be, phone callls, etc. only enforces the rights turned into a priviledge.

The 2d Amendment is the lynch pin that holds the Constitution togather.

I am in the same boat as the rest of you waiting for a leader to lead the charge.:confused:

VaniB.

August 5, 2004, 01:04 AM

Has anyone proactively supported firearm rights?

Yea, I used to hand out stacks of flyers at the gun shows, pass out voter registration cards, and operate a recruiting table for the TSRA and the NRA
YOU WANT TO HEAR THE RESULTS?: :banghead:

I had people toss the flyers out the second I handed it to them, without their having read anything on it.

I almost got thrown out of one gun show by a promoter when a woman dealer complained and pointed me out from across the room to the promoter, that I was the guy who put my "junk" on her table without asking. I was therefore "stealing unpaid space" for my own gain. (This dealer didn't bother to tell the promoter that the "junk" I placed on the corner of her table was a 1/2" high stack of business cards that had a list of the anti-gun business in town!)

I've had other dealers at gun show tables refuse to let me simply place index sized voter registration cards on the corner of their table.

I've had people walk up to glance at the NRA and TSRA (Texas State Rifle Assoc) tables I was manning. These gun show shoppers were holding new rifles or boxes of ammo they had just purchased, but would not hear of spending the $25 NRA membership or $15 TSRA membership at the time, to preserve their gun rights.

I've also had other people, while I was passing out flyers, explain to me that they believed in gun rights only when it was their gun. Otherwise, nobody should own guns.

And then finally, the Anhauser Bush Meeting Hall our small group would meet at , and the George R Brown Out Door Hunting Exravaganza Show that the NRA had a table at, both refused to allow our entry to the facilities right after the Timothy McVeigh murders. I was branded a radical simply for trying to uphold the 2nd amendment!

NEVER AGAIN!!!!.... will I ever open myself up to such humiliation! Way too many complacent morons out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Let em lose their gun rights if I have ever again have to do anything more to stop it.

Monkeyleg

August 5, 2004, 07:41 PM

VaniB., you can't look at it that way or you'll go crazy. The people who will ignore you or complain about you aren't interested in RKBA. They're interested only in themselves.

When you finish a gun show, count the number of flyers/cards/literature that you moved, and compare it to past shows. Tell yourself that, given the particular locale, the number of responses was better than expected. Try to remember the people who responded positively. If you had someone ask how they could help, count that as a quadruple victory.

Every WCCA volunteer has felt the way you do. That's why some come back and volunteer again, and many don't. A person needs a high rejection threshold.

As miserable an experience as it usually is, I miss it.

Somebody get out the leather restraints and the whips. ;)

ClonaKilty

August 5, 2004, 08:18 PM

I became a certified instructor and now teach 10-15 young teens per month how to safely and correctly use a rifle. In addition I run ad-hoc classes for adults who are curious but never shot before. I know of no better way to get fence-sitters excited about, or at least comfortable with, firearms. The more they shoot and are around other gun enthusiasts, the less they are swayed by emotional rhetoric.

And I do all this for free. I volunteer my time, let students use my guns, and if it's an adult's first class I even supply the ammo.

If I meet a current hunter or shooter who I like, and is not a member of NRA, I will give them a year for free, as a gift.

Moparmike

August 5, 2004, 10:29 PM

I am thinking of making flyers for my local gunmongers about the records of candidates. I have also toyed with the idea of starting a gun club on campus.

I am also the webmaster of the Arkansas Rifle & Pistol Association, which is now comatose, as no one decided to volunteer for the offices. :( Not to mention my webpages were never uploaded...